Effects of GABA and picrotoxin on temporary bonds in neuronal populations of the motor cortex

The paired stimulations of some brain structures (the medial lemniscus, the reticular nucleus of the midbrain tectum, and the pyramidal tract) resulted in the formation of temporary bonds in the neuronal populations of the motor cortex of the non-immobilized awake rabbits. The changes in the neuronal impulsation observed in the absence of the supporting stimuli were used as the criteria of establishment of the temporary bond. The changes consisted of the elements reproducing an initial response pattern and generation of impulse sequences that appeared later and differed in their configuration from the responses evoked by the real stimuli. The application of GABA directly to the site from which the neuronal activity was recorded blocked the former changes and significantly facilitated the latter ones. Picrotoxin antagonized the GABA effect only in relation to the late rearrangements of the impulse activity (generation of the sequences that differed from the responses evoked by stimulation).Neirofiziologiya/Neurophysiology, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 115–121, March–April, 1994.